Israel Fires on Militants Planting Bomb, Killing One

By ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: April 8, 2007

Israeli Army helicopters fired at Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday, killing one, the military said. It was the third Israeli military strike in Gaza in 10 days, indicating a further erosion of the tenuous cease-fire that was declared in November.

An Army spokesman said the militants were trying to plant an explosive device near the Israeli-Gaza border fence east of Jabaliya. He emphasized that the army ''did not initiate'' the action, but was responding to Palestinian activity.

The Palestinian killed Saturday was identified as Fuad Maarouf, 22, a member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Mr. Maarouf had apparently joined up with Islamic Jihad, a small, extremist group that rejects the cease-fire, to carry out an operation. Islamic Jihad's military wing said in a statement that its acts were a response to the Israeli Army's ''daily violations'' in the West Bank.

Also early Saturday, Israeli troops shot a well-known militia leader, Zacharia Zubeidi, during a clash with armed men in Jenin in the northern West Bank. Mr. Zubeidi is the local leader of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with the mainstream Fatah organization.

Palestinian officials recently sought to extend the cease-fire from Gaza to the West Bank, but Israeli officials say they want to see it being enforced in Gaza first. Israel withdrew its military from the Gaza Strip and evacuated all Jewish settlements there in 2005.

The Army spokesman said more than 40 explosive devices have been planted since November, all intended for Israeli patrols along the Gaza fence. The soldiers had escaped injury ''by luck,'' he said. About 200 Qassam rockets have been fired at Israel in the same period, according to army officials. Two rockets were launched at Israel on Saturday, army officials said. One damaged a factory in the Israeli town of Sderot.

Israel has followed a policy of restraint in Gaza, and officials have denied any change. But the recent strikes follow a decision to respond immediately to rocket launching, bomb planting and tunnel digging near the fence, reflecting an increase of activity on both sides of the border.

On March 28, Israeli ground forces fired into Gaza at an Islamic Jihad cell about to launch a rocket toward Israel, military officials said. One militant was killed. And on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers fired on another Islamic Jihad cell that it said was planting a bomb near the fence, killing one. In that episode, soldiers entered Gaza briefly to search for more bombs near the fence, for the first time since November.

In late January, the Israeli Air Force struck a tunnel dug by militants near the Karni commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel.

Israeli political and military officials have warned that the ruling Islamic faction Hamas, in particular, is exploiting the relative calm of the cease-fire period to build up its weaponry and other military abilities in Gaza. Hamas dominates the new Palestinian unity government and has mostly stuck to the cease-fire.

There is pressure from some factions in Israel for the government to approve a large-scale military operation in Gaza. A senior army commander said in a recent interview that Israel would not initiate one. But military officials have suggested that if a Palestinian rocket or bomb causes heavy civilian casualties in Israel, the government may be left with no choice but to order the military into Gaza.

The militant wounded Saturday in the West Bank, Mr. Zubeidi, has been on Israel's ''most wanted'' list for years and claims to have survived numerous assassination attempts. An Army spokesman said he was not the target of the strike but was apparently wounded during a ''routine operation'' against armed militants in Jenin's refugee camp.

After the strike, Mr. Zubeidi told the Web site of the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot that he would continue fighting as long as the army continued incursions into Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

The Palestinian unity government held an emergency session on Saturday to discuss a security plan to end the internal chaos and violence in the Palestinian territories. But Palestinian officials say they have low expectations of the chances of success.

''No unity government or Fatah or Hamas can provide security when everybody has guns,'' Sufian Abu Zaida, a senior Fatah official from Gaza, recently told reporters in Jerusalem.

''The problem is with the organizations,'' he said, referring to factions like Islamic Jihad and the Aksa Brigades. ''We have tried before, but under the pretext of holding on to the 'weapons of resistance,' nobody is ready to put his gun down.''

Later on Saturday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, called on the security forces loyal to him to do more to end the internal anarchy and the rocket attacks against Israel, which he described as ''aimless.''

The Palestinian information minister, Mustafa Barghouthi, said militants who have been holding an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, for 10 months had for the first time presented Israel with a list of Palestinian prisoners they wanted released in exchange for his freedom, Reuters reported.

The Israeli news media quoted government officials as saying only that progress had been made in negotiations over Corporal Shalit's release but that a deal was ''a long way away.''

Photo: Gunmen from the Democratic Front of Liberation for Palestine carried the body of Fuad Maarouf, 22, during his funeral in the Jabaliya refugee camp yesterday. He was killed planting explosives on the border fence. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/Associated Press)